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6 Tricks That Helped Me Triple My SaaS' Growth Rate

6 Tricks That Helped Me Triple My SaaS' Growth Rate

Talk given at Microconf 2014

Brennan Dunn

April 15, 2014
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  1. 6 TRICKS THAT HELPED
    ME TRIPLE MY SAAS'
    GROWTH RATE
    @brennandunn

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  2. I’M A HACKER
    &
    I LIKE GROWTH

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  4. I’M A SOLOPRENEUR
    •Planscope (SaaS)
    •“Double Your Freelancing
    Rate” (Book)
    •“Sell Yourself Online: The
    Blueprint” (Book)
    •The Freelancers Guild
    (Membership Site / Course)
    •Consultancy Masterclass
    (Workshop)
    •The Business of Freelancing
    (Podcast)
    •Freelancers Weekly
    (Newsletter)

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  5. View Slide

  6. View Slide

  7. WE’RE ALL HERE
    TO GROW

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  9. WE’RE ALL HERE TO
    MAKE MORE MONEY

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  11. “HOW BIG IS
    YOUR TEAM?”

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  12. LET’S TALK ABOUT 6
    THINGS YOU CAN DO
    TO SPEND MORE TIME
    WITH THESE PEOPLE*
    * Your goal will (and, uh, should) be
    something other than the three people
    displayed to the right :-)

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  13. THE ALL IMPORTANT
    SALES FUNNEL
    Visitors Trials Activations Paid

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  14. PAID CUSTOMER
    CHURN
    April June August

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  15. IDENTIFY & TWEAK
    POINTS OF
    OPTIMIZATION

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  16. 1 REAQUIRING
    DRIVE-BYS

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  17. GOAL: DRIVE INTERESTED PEOPLE BACK TO YOU

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  18. “GOOGLE, HOW DO
    I RAISE MY RATES?”

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  19. “GOOGLE, I NEED
    PROJECT MANAGEMENT
    SOFTWARE.”

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  20. AVOID “ONE SIZE FITS
    ALL” RETARGETING

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  21. MARKETING SITE +
    DISPLAY NETWORK
    BLOG +
    FACEBOOK

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  22. RETARGETING IS MORE THAN JUST
    CONVERTING VISITORS
    • Invitation to join the founder for 1-on-1 onboarding
    • RSVP for an upcoming webinar or mastermind
    • Videos or blog posts of success stories or usage guides
    • Product updates
    • Compliment and reinforce your trial lifecycle
    communication

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  23. 2 SEGMENTING

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  24. GOAL: MAKE THIS A PRODUCT-FOR-ONE

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  25. “I own a development consultancy, and we
    bill $10,000 a week.”
    Lifecycle emails
    “When I ran my
    consultancy, I…”
    Onboarding
    Sample project with
    development-y tasks,
    rate of $10k/week
    In-app Messaging
    Reporting verbiage,
    button labels, etc.

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  26. FURTHER WAYS TO INDIVIDUALIZE
    • Listed in a 3rd party integration marketplace? You have
    referrer data — auto-default to linking with the referring tool.
    • Create specialized landing pages for each persona. “I run a 20
    person agency… there’s no WAY a tool that works for
    freelancers could help me.”
    • Figure out how, why, and where they first showed up on your
    site, and profile them for later. (<— Master-level)

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  27. TAKEAWAY
    A perfectly placed “If”
    condition can go a long way
    toward improving
    conversions.

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  28. 3 TRIAL SCORES

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  29. GOAL: LEARN + OPTIMIZE OUTREACH

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  30. WHAT’S COMMON
    ABOUT PEOPLE WHO
    BUY?

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  31. PEOPLE WHO BUY PLANSCOPE
    USUALLY…
    •Have created a project
    •Have invited a client to join their project
    •(Team accounts) Have invited their team members
    •Have integrated with a 3rd party invoicing app
    •Have logged 20+ hours of time

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  34. BUYING
    LOST NEEDS A PUSH
    90%
    60%
    30%
    WHAT CAUSED
    THESE SCORES…?

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  35. YOUR #1 JOB IS TO
    NUDGE PEOPLE
    TOWARD CONVERTING

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  36. TAKEAWAY
    Write and test your
    automated emails inside
    Gmail before putting them
    inside a cron job.

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  37. 4 EDUCATE
    EVERYWHERE

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  38. GOAL: FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER, NOT THE PRODUCT
    Your customer’s business
    Your product

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  39. “Click this button. Now enter a price
    in here. Then, click…”
    “Here are some tricks you can use to
    help you win this new project…”
    VS

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  40. SCREENSHOT OF CUSTOMER.IO
    EMAIL
    “You’ve just created your first estimate. My goal with this email is to
    help you raise the likelihood that your client will accept it 2-3x.”

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  41. CELEBRATE YOUR CUSTOMERS’ SUCCESSES (AND GATHER
    SOME GREAT TESTIMONIALS ALONG THE WAY…)

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  42. TAKEAWAY
    What actions ALIGN with
    why someone actually
    wants your product?

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  43. 5 DO AN EXIT
    INTERVIEW

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  44. GOAL: GO BEYOND WHAT FUNNELS CAN TELL US

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  45. THE NOT-SO-OBVIOUS
    REASON TO COLLECT CREDIT
    CARDS UPFRONT:
    REQUIRES PEOPLE TO CANCEL

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  49. PRODUCT ENVIRONMENTAL
    • Doesn’t do X
    • Too confusing to get setup
    • Too expensive
    • It kept breaking
    • My client wouldn’t use it
    • My team wouldn’t use it
    WHY DO PEOPLE CANCEL?
    • I got a job! At GitHub!
    • We stopped consulting
    • I wasn’t using it*
    • I ran out of client work*
    • Went out of business*

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  50. TAKEAWAY
    People are at the high water
    mark of their emotional
    entanglement with your
    product when they cancel.

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  51. 6 WAYS TO
    INCREASE LTV

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  52. THE GOAL OF THE TRIAL TO
    ESTABLISH PRODUCT FIT.
    WHEN DONE, CHARGE.

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  53. $3,216

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  54. April May June July August September
    Freelancer Plan Likely To Churn

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  55. Reacquire Traffic
    Segment Trials To Personalize
    Score To Learn & Optimize
    Enrich The Whole Customer
    Discover Why People Cancel
    Increase LTV
    Increase Visitor -> Trial
    Increase Trial -> Activation
    Increase Activation -> Paid
    Increase Activation -> Paid
    Increase Activation -> Paid
    Decrease Churn
    Decrease Churn

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  56. Reacquire Traffic
    Segment Trials To Personalize
    Score To Learn & Optimize
    Enrich The Whole Customer
    Discover Why People Cancel
    Increase LTV
    +1% Visitor -> Trial
    +15% Trial -> Activation
    +7% Activation -> Paid
    +7% Activation -> Paid
    +7% Activation -> Paid
    Decrease Churn
    Decrease Churn

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  57. +33%
    PAID ACCOUNTS

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  58. LOOK FOR REPEATABLE
    QUESTS THAT GET YOU TO
    THAT NEXT LEVEL FASTER.

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